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Xellos
|image = Image:Xelloss.jpg |imagewidth = 200 |caption = is on your boats, defyin' your laws of gravity |Row 1 title = Nicknames |Row 1 info = Namagomi Mazoku (Raw Garbage Monster), DAMMIT XELLOS, You Bastard!, Why yoooou!! |Row 2 title = Gender |Row 2 info = Technically? Genderless. His physical form (on the Elegante) is male. |Row 3 title = Age |Row 3 info = About 1,012 years old or so. Maybe 1,013. |Row 4 title = Species |Row 4 info = Monster ("Mazoku" in the original Japanese) |Row 5 title = Languages |Row 5 info = Common |Row 6 title = Room |Row 6 info = 1231 (Deck 12) |Row 7 title = Canon |Row 7 info = Slayers |Row 8 title = Journal |Row 8 info = That is a secret! |Row 9 title = Mun |Row 9 info = Katu }} "That is a secret!" Background Xellos is a delightful bastard high-ranking Monster from the anime series Slayers. And, to explain his background, I, unfortunately, have to start at the very beginning. Once upon a time, there was a war going on. This was started by the five subordinates of Ruby Eye Shabranigdu because they wanted to awaken their lord. Who would be that Ruby Eye Shabranigdu guy that I was talking about. This was the War of the Monster's Fall. Well, long story short, at one point in the war, the subordinates had to step back from the front to put up a barrier so they could defeat one of their enemies uninterrupted. It was at that time that Greater Beast Zelas Metallium created Xellos, the lovable scamp that he is, to go fight in the war directly in her place. Now, most of the subordinates created two servants-- a general, and a priest. Zelas, however, poured that power into one Monster. Therefore, Xellos is the strongest Monster in his race with the exception of the five subordinates. And, of course, the Demon King Ruby Eye Shabranigdu. So, Xellos starts following orders with a smile! He killed thousands of Golden Dragons in the war singlehandedly, and is understandably hated by them to this day. Seriously, it was singlehandedly, as you can see here. We don't know much of his wartime exploits, but it's enough for the cast of Slayers to know to not get in a fight with Xellos ever. In any case, after the war, Xellos' orders are to track down copies of the Claire Bible manuscripts and destroy them. The Claire Bible holds a wealth of information that would be very dangerous to the Monster Race if humans were able to access it, so... Xellos gets to set things on fire. That lasts for a thousand years or so, give or take a decade, until he meets the Slayers cast. Oh, the fantastic times they will have. The major plot points of the series for Xellos only are summarized below: Xellos introduces himself to the cast as the Mysterious Priest, who is looking for a stray manuscript of the Claire Bible for the temple he works for. Which is not a lie, it's just not... the whole truth. He follows the party around, mostly enjoying the chaos they always leave in their wake. Of course, he's under orders to do so, but he's mostly trying to keep them away from manuscripts-- so he feeds them information that is never entirely verified, oftentimes too good to be true, sending them on the most random misadventures-- everything from cross-dressing to get into a town of only women, to playing a game of super-powered tennis. Finally, the plot shows up, in the form of Lord Gaav. Through means of Being Really Fucking Strong, he beats the ever-not-loving shit out of Xellos to get information out of him, which he doesn't give him a lot of. Gaav is trying to find out what Hellmaster Phibrizzo's plans are. Xellos, being under orders from Hellmaster, should know some of them, right? He certainly does know some things-- but some are, of course, secrets. Gaav later does REALLY SERIOUS damage to Xellos, pretty much keeping him out of the fun for the rest of the season, at least until the season finale, where he mostly is a bystander. In season 3, Slayers Try, Xellos is under new orders-- stop the big bad played by Shedder from TMNT 2k3 from summoning a bigger bad, because if something's going to destroy the world, it's going to be the Monster Race. Alternatively, if he can just convert the Big Bad to being a Monster, that's cool too. His bargaining chip here is that, after he ran off after being so injured last season, Lina ended up killing Gaav. Which was, you know, well and good at the time. Except the big bad in the third Season, Valgaav, was one of his loyal servants and wants Lina dead. Xellos says that he will personally eliminate Lina Inverse if Valgaav becomes a Monster. And then they fight and Valgaav (ultimately) kicks Xellos' ass there. He spends most of this season at odds with a Golden Dragon newly added to Lina's party named Filia Ul Copt, who really brings out a less-than-smiley side of Xellos. Personality Zel: “One more thing: That sneak Xellos is involved in all of this somehow, too. …” Pokota: “You mean that guy who says ‘that’s a secret’ about everything?” Lina: “He’s not someone who acts without a plan. If he moves, there’s a reason. He’s definitely up to something.” The best word to describe Xellos would be duplicitous. He never does much of anything unless it has benefit for himself, be that benefit to help him carry out orders from his higher-ups, or just his own amusement. He always, always smiles. He is forever smiling in an attempt to keep up his friendly-trickster-priest persona. Some people are a bit uncomfortable with the constant smiling, and even the cast notes after he introduces himself as the "Mysterious Priest" that he couldn't be up to any good with a name like that. However, when he opens his eyes, shit will, in fact, get very real. Xellos is always polite, referring to everyone as "Mister, Missus, Miss," etc. (In Japanese, everyone was "-san", obviously.) The only person Xellos has ever been outright rude to was Filia, and, well. She started it. The jerk likes to have his fun, certainly, and will prompt other people around him to cause trouble for his amusement. Monsters, on the whole, are ruled by Chaos. Their ultimate goal is to sink the world back into the Sea of Chaos from whence it came, thereby destroying it. So, they feed off of and are drawn to chaos. Which means, the more miserable people near him are, the happier Xellos will probably appear to be. There are exceptions, of course. Xellos appears to do a lot of things. He appears to be sympathetic, he appears to feel regret-- and, while he does, to some extent, most of his outer facade is completely fake. He can be downright cruel when he gets a mind to, but it's incredibly rare. He himself has claimed to be at odds with what he does. He has a very contradictory nature. So much of what his actions are in the series, however, are directly related to orders he has from his superiors. Xellos: “Oh, I make it a point to never lie!” This is a very important thing to note about Xellos. While I believe I've said it before, it bears repeating. He doesn't lie. It's not his style. He withholds the truth, he doesn't tell all of the story, etc. He also will say, "That is a secret," if, that is, in fact, a secret. Why make up a lie when you can tell the truth? The truth, being, of course, "That is a secret." Xellos is likely to get very bored, very quickly. Hopefully the passengers never stop being interesting. Abilities and Powers Sections of this will be copied from his application because that was pretty all-encompassing. Due to the nature of Xellos’ existence in the original series, he is ridiculously overpowered. There are only five monsters and a couple of demon gods stronger than he is in the original canon, so, one must ask, “How will he be cut back for the boat?” As I explain his abilities, I will mostly be focusing on how severely handicapped he will be on the boat, and I will explain how his limitations should work within his own canon. Xellos’ first ability in Slayers is one very crucial to his nature. Xellos exists largely on the Astral Plane within the original canon, as the rest of his race also do. The short version of what that link has to say is that everything, including humans, have an Astral body. It could be argued that the Astral Body is the in-series equivalent to the soul, for humans. Furthermore, if a human’s Astral Body is destroyed, they will be left a lifeless shell on the physical plane. However, Monsters like Xellos exist on the Astral Plane first, and project a physical form to the physical plane. That human-shaped body everyone knows and loves is merely an illusion. In the original canon, to harm Xellos, you had to use a weapon that could affect him on the Astral Plane, not simply on the physical one. This will not be the case on the Elegante, as Xellos will be limited to that physical form. Because of this crucial limitation, Xellos’ magic will also be severely cut down. Xellos’ original abilities were broken down as thus: the abilities he has because of his race (that of a Monster), skills in Black magic, the teleportation and Super Speed, and the ability to either negate magic effects or to not be affected by magic at all. Furthermore, because of his existence on the Astral Plane, he appears in the series to never get tired (except when grievously injured, and most of the time he will attempt to keep up appearances) and there are times when he can just retreat to the Astral Plane entirely to either avoid attack or avoid detection. So. Fortunately for the people who he will inevitably piss off on the Elegante, most of those do not apply. Here is an itemized list of the effects of being tied to his human shape: → Xellos’ offensive magic will be drastically reduced. Not only is he incapable of the wanton destruction that gained him a terrible reputation, what few attack spells he can still perform will, after a few attacks, tire him out pretty quickly. → Xellos’ transformative ability (that ties to his abilities as a Monster) will also be limited, further reducing his power. While he will be able to change to his beast form for attacks (which would appear as a whirlwind or a cone of shadow), and while he will be able to summon one of the attacks that uses part of that Astral essence to hurt things, he will be forced to retreat soon thereafter, as the process will also exhaust him— a serious limitation, considering that he has never really experienced such an effect from such a simple attack before. → Xellos’ ability to Run The Hell Away— be it either his super speed (for lack of a better term) or his ability to teleport will still be intact, but it, like the use of his other magic, will weaken him to some extent. Unless it is necessary, he won’t use it as much. In addition to that, while he will still hover off the ground like he normally can, he won’t be using it as much, in an attempt to conserve energy. He will only be able to teleport to passenger-approved areas of the boat. → Finally, Xellos’ skills with negating magic will also be nerfed. While he can still negate magic, he will be limited to a set number of blocks before he starts getting tired. Furthermore, he will not simply be immune to some magic as he is in his original canon— he will actually have to put forth the effort to block it. While I wish I could say “that’s all, folks,” there are two more things I need to talk about: first, Xellos’ silver tongue. The bastard can talk, and he’s very, very manipulative. While he claims that he “makes it a point to never lie,” it is debatable, obviously, how true of a statement that is. He keeps lots of secrets. He puts on an amazing face— that of a happy “trickster priest”. He delights in the spread of madness and mayhem. Beyond his skill in manipulation, he is a gifted strategist, and always has a plan behind his actions. He’s pretty good at acting out the Xanatos Gambits of his superiors to remarkable effect. He sees worth in every relationship, he looks for every opportunity to manipulate everyone he knows. Secondly, and this is more of a weakness than an ability, Monsters feed off misery. To quote the Kanzaka Wiki, “A monster's source of energy (food) is shōki, the miasma produced by humans and other beings (even manifested lesser demons) when they experience negative emotions ." So, your suffering is a feast for Xellos. On the opposite end of the spectrum, positive feelings seem to cause effects on monsters that range anywhere from a mild nausea to pain, nausea and general incapacitation. This is generally played for comedy in the series. Here is a great clip of him not really even trying in a fight, though this will be closer to what his powers are here on the Elegante. Appearance Xellos appears to be a 20-something priest, with a pretty odd bowl cut sort of haircut going on. His hair is purple, as are his eyes if you ever get the chance to see them. Because the form we see in the series is just a projection Xellos puts there from the Astral Plane, he wears the same clothes pretty much all the time-- this likely won't change too much on the boat, though he might abandon his mantle sometimes. He doesn't have his staff, though he does still have his bag. Not that there was very much in it... Extra Notes Believe it or not, it is less confusing for me to use the English dub terms from this series, so there are some variations in spellings and names from translation to translation. The company that dubbed Slayers was noooot the best for translation? So. You know. Major differences of note: ¤ Mazoku = Monster. This can refer to a single Mazoku/Monster, or the Monster Race. ¤ Shabranigdu = Shabranigdo. ...this is not actually less confusing, it's just how they pronounced the name in the dub. I'll be spelling it as Shabranigdu, but it is pronounced in the dub as "do" and you know what, /FLIPS SLAYERS TRANSLATORS ¤ Xelloss = Xellos. I have always spelled his name with one 's'? Some of the fandom spells it with two? Does it really mater? ¤ Kōma War = The War of the Monster's Fall. The kanji for that being 降魔戦争. Not that I know any of those kanji. ¤ Garv = Gaav. Random. Nuts to you, Slayers, and your ridiculous, ridiculous translations. There was one instance that was mistranslated in the dub where one character's grandfather was hypothesized to be his "grandfather and great-grandfather." Fortunately, it was supposed to be "or", not "and." Other fun instances of mistranslation (perhaps purposeful mistranslation) gone awry is a scene in the third Season where Xellos says to someone in the original version, "That's the Filia I know." In the dub, the line, inexplicably is "That's the dragon I love." Which is funny, because, you know. Xellos is incapable of love. Just, you know. Sayin'. Elegante Timeline June →5th Xellos practically sneaks on board, which is absolutely perfect for him Other Stuff, Links, Random Facts App. It's also available in his journal. A Roguish Priest! His Name is Xellos! Episode 2 of the Second Season, the first episode where Xellos appears! Enjoy his old dub voice, ladies and gentlemen, because in the older seasons? That would be David Brimmer, credited as David Moo in the series. In the newest seasons he's played by Michael Sinterniklaas. So, you know. Xellos sounds remarkably like Leonardo from TMNT 2k3 in the new dub. He's played by the fabulous and ridiculously talented Akira Ishida in the original Japanese version. "Ring the Bell and Good Things Will Happen." The writers like picking on him. Category:Characters Category:Fandom Category:Slayers Category:Dropped